Getting Rid Of Wagyu Brisket Question

[masque13]

hey guys......in an effort to collect some funds towards offsetting my competition expenses I am going to sell some of my leftover wagyu brisket to friends & family. They are willing to help out and most of them are willing to pay fair market value for my pork and ribs.

I was just curious if any of you have done this and what your thoughts would be on what a pound of wagyu brisket should be worth at fair market value?

I would rather just eat it, but I think my wife would prefer for me to get some money back :becky:

 

[Pigs on Fire]

How much/many slices do you have left? I had an 18 lb SNF brisket this weekend and it was 50% fat. That makes the raw meat $20/lb....

The flat was about 3/4" thick at the thickest section. I ate a slice, my wife ate about 1/2 slice, I gave a couple of slices to the contest organizer and his wife and I brought home 5 slices....

Waygu brisket is about $10/slice. Do you have people that will pay that??

 

[masque13]

i came home with a little over 4lbs of unused slices and burnt ends. typically, we wouldnt have much left, but we specifically tried to not anymore than necessary for tasting for the purpose of trying to get as much as possible home to sell.

I doubt that many of the folks I know would pay $10 a slice for brisket and really that's OK.....I'm not really expecting them to do that. However, if I could get $25-$30 per pound for what I have left, then I could get a pretty good chunk of money back.....and I do think I could probably get that from them.

but the main reason for my post was to see what you guys think is a typical fair market value for wagyu brisket and regardless of what FMV is what do you guys typically try to sell leftover brisket for, if you even do it?

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

but the main reason for my post was to see what you guys think is a typical fair market value for wagyu brisket and regardless of what FMV is what do you guys typically try to sell leftover brisket for, if you even do it?

We get $11/lb for upper Wagyu brisket/BEs, luckily I pretrim. I ended up with 48lbs of Waygu hamburger this winter, that I selfishly eat myself. :shocked:

This hobby is not really much of a money maker........

 

[Right on Q]

I don't cook wagyu but I've had a couple of other competitors tell me they get $10/lb when they sell to friends.

If you can get $25-$30/lb I say go for it. Anything you get will be better than nothing.

 

[Blanton]

I don't think you can recoup cost of waygu from friends/family. At least to be able to have repeat customers. I get 10/pound for pork or brisket. My belief is that this is my hobby and keeping the price reasonable creates regular takers from each contest and anything I can get to offset cost is a win for me. Also, the pork sales help offset the brisket a little. Price it out of reach and reducing sales wouldnt be of help to me.

 

[masque13]

that's cool thanks guys.

10lb for wagyu??? that seems awful low.....man we sell all of our leftover pork for $12 per pound when we get home.......i can't imagine selling wagyu beef for less than standard pork.

granted, you have to find an audience for wagyu beef, because unless someone has eaten it, they dont realize it's value in the stomach so to speak.....lol

but yes, at the end of the day, anything I can get out of the stuff to help offset the expense is what I try to do.....and yes, I agree 100%, that this hobby is not a money maker and may never be a money maker for me......i realize that because of my job and other commitments, I simply cannot cook as much as folks who do it all the time and if I can be as good as those folks cooking 15% or less as much as they do then this hobby doesnt require much skill. but I do believe it requires skill, so I accept that unless I can find a way to dedicate more time to it that I will likely be a guy that gets calls and maybe woolens around and wins something occasionally......but i love doing it, and if i can find a way to make it less of a financial drain then that will only help me enjoy doing it ore. :-D

 

[masque13]

I don't think you can recoup cost of waygu from friends/family. At least to be able to have repeat customers. I get 10/pound for pork or brisket. My belief is that this is my hobby and keeping the price reasonable creates regular takers from each contest and anything I can get to offset cost is a win for me. Also, the pork sales help offset the brisket a little. Price it out of reach and reducing sales wouldnt be of help to me.

i can dig that......but when sonny's sells pulled pork for $12 a pound plus tax than I think it is very reasonable to sell the pork we make for $12 per pound.....and we have no problem with repeat customers at $12 per pound.

wagyu brisket is for sure going to be different.......not many people are willing to pay for wagyu steaks or that quality of meat period...i understand that.

however, for someone that knows and wants it I think you could get a decent price out of it.

I just figured more folks did this......traditionally, we haven't tried to sell any brisket because we love to eat it.....in fact, its usually the only thing I have any interest in eating after we get home. I was just looking to expand our recouping process.

 

[Fat Freddy]

We have what we call a meat partnership. How it works is every contest we are going to do, so far this year signed up for 10, we ask for a meat partner. What this involves is full access to our site, watch us prep what seasonings etc., and all left over meat. We ask for $125 for this per contest(as of today 9 out of 10 are paid already). The left over meat is usually 8-9 pieces of chicken, apprx 2 racks of ribs(each bone cut), 8-10 pounds pork, and apprx 4-5 pounds of brisket(wagyu). We write this up as a semi formal contract and people pay for the contest they want. First pay first choice. At end of season we send a Thank you card and a gift(pen with our logo or calendar etc).

This will be our second year doing this, and we had people asking about if we were going to do it again as early as January this year.

It doesnt pay everything but like in the case of our 10 contests so far its like having a sponsorship of $1250 and has friends, family, and community involved.

 

[masque13]

We have what we call a meat partnership. How it works is every contest we are going to do, so far this year signed up for 10, we ask for a meat partner. What this involves is full access to our site, watch us prep what seasonings etc., and all left over meat. We ask for $125 for this per contest(as of today 9 out of 10 are paid already). The left over meat is usually 8-9 pieces of chicken, apprx 2 racks of ribs(each bone cut), 8-10 pounds pork, and apprx 4-5 of brisket(wagyu). We write this up as a semi formal contract and people pay for the contest they want. First pay first choice. At end of season we send a Thank you card and a gift(pen with our logo or calendar etc).

This will be our second year doing this, and we had people asking about if we were going to do it again as early as January this year.

It doesnt pay everything but like in the case of our 10 contests so far its like having a sponsorship of $1250 and has friends, family, and community involved.

that is super cool! thanks for sharing.

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

i can dig that......but when sonny's sells pulled pork for $12 a pound plus tax than I think it is very reasonable to sell the pork we make for $12 per pound.....and we have no problem with repeat customers at $12 per pound.

wagyu brisket is for sure going to be different.......not many people are willing to pay for wagyu steaks or that quality of meat period...i understand that.

however, for someone that knows and wants it I think you could get a decent price out of it.

I just figured more folks did this......traditionally, we haven't tried to sell any brisket because we love to eat it.....in fact, its usually the only thing I have any interest in eating after we get home. I was just looking to expand our recouping process.

Everyone's situation may be a like different than yours, for example, I had approximately 260#s of leftover pork, 130#s of leftover brisket. Heck just off of my pork trimmings I made over 100#s of fresh sausage/brats this winter.

I only have so much freezer space and I need some of that for the cases of comp meat that I buy. :doh:

By the way, I get $7/lb for pork.

 

[Pappy Q]

We sell ours for $15/lb. We found an acquaintance who will buy all we have.

 

[JD McGee]

We do it all the time...mostly to co-workers and neighbors. We charge what we paid per lb.

 

[Robert]

We do it all the time...mostly to co-workers and neighbors. We charge what we paid per lb.

JD,

I like that right there. Not trying to finance the team just trying toget some money back to help offset the overall cost. With that being said, I save the pork and brisket for catering parties or donate to charities.

Another idea for the OP is to take some samples to local bars. They might be willing to buy some to serve. But, I don't think they will pay $25/pound. I think it might be better to try to keep the cost down for them and maybe keep some money rolling in for you.

 

[masque13]

yeh I have accepted the fact that $25 + per pound on the wagyu will likely not happen, unless I find someone that loves wagyu, has deep pockets and doesnt mind to pay fair market value for that quality of beef.

So I do think I can sell it all day long for $15 per pound to most of the people that already buy from us. Maybe once I get them hooked I can convince them to pay a bit more.

I will say I am stunned at those of you who are saying that you sell your pork for anywhere from the cost of what you paid for it to around $7 per pound. Dont you feel you are essentially giving it away at that price? and dont you think if a place like Sonny's can sell their pulled pork for $12 per pound plus tax that your pulled pork and what you have put into is worth more?

I mean I totally get if you want to donate to friends and families that "need" it or that would benefit from it. Outside of that, I dont know why I would ever be willing to sell it for less than $10-$12 per pound. Our people pay it and dont blink an eye at it. In fact, we sometimes sell "whole butts" that the customer pulls on their own for $75.....those butts may have 5.5 lbs of edible meat in them. and in those cases, the whole butts put us up around $13.60 per pound on those.

That may seem a bit high to some, but when you factor in time, injections, glazes, storage bags/containers and in many cases we deliver, so gas, I think it's pretty fair. fortunately, for us, the people that buy from us have as well.

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

I'm a bit confused, if you can sell pork for that price and they buy a bunch of it, why not just cook at home on the weekend instead of paying an entry fee for competition contests? That would be a lot less stressful.

Myself, I can't find enough folks to buy 10-12#s of pork, 6#s of brisket, week after week. I really don't have time to look, my weekly comp schedule along with work leaves very little time and limited resources for it. I can offset some of the cost of meat with a few calls, that seems to be where I focus most of my energy though.

By all means, get what you can for it, because folks really have little access to quality meat.

 

[Blanton]

I will say I am stunned at those of you who are saying that you sell your pork for anywhere from the cost of what you paid for it to around $7 per pound. Dont you feel you are essentially giving it away at that price? and dont you think if a place like Sonny's can sell their pulled pork for $12 per pound plus tax that your pulled pork and what you have put into is worth more?

Sonny's selling it at $12, would be the retail price in order to run a business, and as true with any business, generate a profit. I think many of us have stated our goal is to try to recoup some the expenses that we are going to have regardless, due to our choice of a hobby. My contest fees, meat cost, travel and beer cost are going to remain regardless if I have those that want to "sponsor" some meat packs. Friends are helping me defer some of those cost. I get some recoup in cost and they get a fair and great price for meat. We both win

I think you need to decide if you trying to sell like a retail store or trying to lower some of your hobby expense. Two different things.

 

[Untraceable]

I think you are incredibly fortunate to break even on raw costs. This isn't eating at a restaurant. Its not even the absolute best meat you cooked as hopefully that is going to the judges. and then you hope to have handled, cooled, and packaged properly so the end sponsor/customer gets the best possible product and continues supporting you.

 

[masque13]

I'm a bit confused, if you can sell pork for that price and they buy a bunch of it, why not just cook at home on the weekend instead of paying an entry fee for competition contests? That would be a lot less stressful.

Myself, I can't find enough folks to buy 10-12#s of pork, 6#s of brisket, week after week. I really don't have time to look, my weekly comp schedule along with work leaves very little time and limited resources for it. I can offset some of the cost of meat with a few calls, that seems to be where I focus most of my energy though.

By all means, get what you can for it, because folks really have little access to quality meat.

there is really nothing to be confused about. I cook competitions not to make money, but because I enjoy the experience and I am a very competitive person......I grew up playing sports and I'm too old and out of shape to really be competitive at many sports now, so BBQ i amore my speed now.

I can't sell enough pork to cook every week or I may consider it. what I am saying is that when we do cook pork we rarely have any trouble selling what we cook for $12 per pound....sometimes, I do $10 per pound, depending on the circumstances, but 80% of the time it's $12 per pound. In fact, most of the time we cook, our stuff is "pre-sold", so we're only cooking what we have sold.

I would do more, if there was more demand, and if I made less money at my normal job. however, I have been blessed to have a decent job and I will likely never be in a position to make more money at BBQ than my job.....I dont have to sell any meat to be able to do comps.....I simply try to sell meat at comps and in between to help pay for my BBQ hobby, because it makes my wife happier.

the whole idea behind this thread was to simply see what others sold wagyu brisket for.....my comments regarding pork sales were simply based on how shocked I am to find out folks sell it from anywhere from $2-$7 per pound. it's not a problem for me that folks do, just making conversation and pointing out that it was a surprise.

 

[masque13]

Sonny's selling it at $12, would be the retail price in order to run a business, and as true with any business, generate a profit. I think many of us have stated our goal is to try to recoup some the expenses that we are going to have regardless, due to our choice of a hobby. My contest fees, meat cost, travel and beer cost are going to remain regardless if I have those that want to "sponsor" some meat packs. Friends are helping me defer some of those cost. I get some recoup in cost and they get a fair and great price for meat. We both win

I think you need to decide if you trying to sell like a retail store or trying to lower some of your hobby expense. Two different things.

actually it's not two different things to me....just because I label it a hobby doesnt mean I can't put myself in a position to recoup as many of my expenses as possible. my point on the price of pork is that we all put more "love" into our pork than place like sonny's will do......they won't inject, they won't probably wrap, their rubs are likely less complex and they certainly dont make any glazes.

most of us do do that stuff and there is expense in all of that and the benefit is that our pork should be better than sonny's.....i'm not taking away form them, they are doing exactly what they should do, and I think it is remarkable that their stuff is as good as it is most of the time......but if they can charge $12 per pound for pulled pork plus tax and that is what your family and friends would pay to have it done form sonny's.....then I personally do not believe that there is anything wrong with charging $12 per pound for the pork I make, especially considering the extra love I put into the handful of butts I cook when I cook.

luckily for us, when people buy our pork they think it's great that they are getting a superior product, technically at a lower price than they know they would pay getting it a national chain. as a result, that's why we personally feel that we are selling ourselves short and leaving money on the table so to speak by charging any less than $10-$12 per pound.

and once again, I am more than OK with that those that do it differently, I am not trying to piss anyone off or start an argument.....i'm simply making causal conversation by saying that I was stunned to find out that people sell their pork for anywhere from $1.69-$7 per pound. it's not intended to be a criticism towards anyone....I was just surprised to find that out.